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Researchers are traversing Western mountains to better understand snow algae – and whether its blooms are hastening the melting of mountain snowpack.
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As a drought-stricken region looks ahead to the summer, climate scientists are keeping an eye on high-mountain snowpack and its path to streams and rivers. Snow at high altitudes makes up the majority of the water in the Colorado River – where this past winter has left low totals.
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If it doesn’t snow again in Denver soon, this will be the city's shortest snow season on record. And Denver's dearth of snow reflects a more consequential climate trend – the Mountain West's shortening season for accumulating mountain snowpack.
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Year by year, Rocky Mountain snowpack is shrinking, slowly exhibiting the sting of a warming climate. The way we measure the snow is changing too, as a shifting baseline for what counts as “average” paints a somewhat deceptive picture of how much snow is stored at high altitude.
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Recent storms brought mountain snowpack above normal levels across much of the West, but the precipitation only slightly improves the region's long-term drought conditions.
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“We are careening towards this future where our mountains no longer have the snowpack that we have come to expect them to have to meet our downstream water needs."
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Colorado’s Front Range has been abnormally warm and dry this fall, heading into winter. Although some snowfall is expected later this week, many Coloradans are wondering what the rest of winter is going to be like.
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Federal scientists are launching an effort to better understand the hydrology in the U.S. West. The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday announced a new kind of climate observatory near the headwaters of the Colorado River. Scientists say data gathered from the equipment will help better predict rain and snowfall in the region and determine how much of it will flow through the river.
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As Colorado enters the hottest months of the year, drought and high temperatures are on most people's minds. But researchers at Colorado State University are still focused on snow.
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Critical April 1 snowpack readings once again spell trouble, and new studies show the warming climate is lengthening dry spells and shrinking the snowpack, even in winter.